The Taliban has claimed victory over opposition forces in the last holdout province of Panjshir, completing their takeover of Afghanistan three weeks after capturing Kabul.

“With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Monday.

The anti-Taliban National Resistance Front (NRF) pledged to carry on fighting in Panjshir Valley, saying it is present in “strategic positions” and that “the struggle against the Taliban … will continue”.

The whereabouts of resistance leader Ahmed Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president who had joined the resistance after the fall of Kabul, were not immediately known.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Qatar to discuss the chaotic aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This live blog is now closed. Here were Monday’s updates:

Russia’s foreign minister says officials from his country could attend a swearing-in ceremony for a new Afghanistan government if it is inclusive of all the country’s ethnic groups.

“We want to support the government-forming process if this government reflects the whole spectrum of the Afghan society, including the Taliban and other ethnic groups, not just Pashtuns, such as Uzbeks, Hazaras and Tajiks,” Sergey Lavrov said.

The Emir of Qatar and the visiting US secretaries of state and defence discussed developments in Afghanistan and efforts to enhance security there, the Emir’s court said, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after their arrival in Doha earlier in the day.

The visit came with Washington seeking support for the evacuation of Americans and at-risk Afghans left behind in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and to build a consensus among allies on how to respond to the new Afghanistan rulers.

Afghanistan’s leadership should try to amicably resolve all issues related to forming a stable and representative government in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s army chief has said.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa commented in a televised speech at a ceremony marking Defence Day of Pakistan, the day on which Pakistan claims its forces repulsed a 1965 Indian attack.

Bajwa also urged the United Nations and the international community to play positive roles for peace in Afghanistan.

“We also expect that the world will not abandon the Afghan people at this difficult time,” Bajwa said.

For the last three weeks, Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has been leading the armed resistance against Taliban rule in Panjshir, the only province to evade the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan last month.

The 32-year-old, who was trained at the British military academy Sandhurst, is following in his father’s footsteps – the elder Massoud also led an armed resistance against Taliban rule in the 1990s.

But whereas the father’s resistance was able to relay constant updates in several languages, Ahmad’s National Resistance Front (NRF) has faced great difficulty in sending out information from the northeastern province since the Taliban cut off phone and Internet access last week.

Afghanistan’s professional T20 cricket tournament, which was due to start on Friday, has been postponed, an official from the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) told Reuters.
The Shpageeza Cricket League was due to feature eight franchises – up from six in 2020 – including titleholders The Kabul Eagles.

Top Afghan players, including world number three T20 bowler, leg-spinner Rashid Khan, were set to play in the 15-day league, which was expected to be contested across the country.

However, after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on August 15, the future of many sporting events in the country remains uncertain.

Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter, as fears grow over the digital paper trail left by former officials and their international partners.